In the past, benzotriazole UV absorbers, like oMTP (compound 1), have been added to intraocular lens (IOL) materials to provide protection from UV radiation in the environment. Typically, UV absorbers possess a polymerizable moiety, such as vinyl, acrylate or methacrylate functionality in their chemical structure, for covalent incorporation into the IOL material during polymerization. Most of these benzotriazole UV absorbers will provide a UV transmission cut-off of between 1 and 10% in the 390-410 nm range depending on concentration.

More recently, polymerizable yellow dyes have also been added to IOLs to absorb harmful blue light radiation. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,470,932 and 5,543,504. Most yellow dyes absorb blue light over a wide wavelength range and bring about a gradual attenuation of blue light, usually from 500 to 400 nm depending on the concentration of yellow dye used. If a sharper cut-off of the transmission spectrum in the blue-violet region is desired, conventional yellow dyes could not provide a sharp cut-off in that region. See, also, US 2005/0243272, which discloses ophthalmic devices having a highly selective violet light transmissive filter that selectively filters wavelengths between approximately 400 nm to about 450 nm with little or no absorption of wavelengths above 450 nm.